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Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doer (L) with MP Rob Merrifield (R) with U.S. Speaker of the House John Boehner in his Capitol Hill office, Thursday, June 19, 2014. (Heather Reed/Office of Speaker John Boehner)

Canada has officially extended an invitation to Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives, to travel here to discuss the Keystone XL pipeline.

Canada's Ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doer, accompanied by Conservative MP Rob Merrifield, hand-delivered the letter to Boehner's Capitol Hill office Thursday, on behalf of Boehner's counterpart, House of Commons Speaker Andrew Scheer.

Boehner said in a statement on his website that he would make "every effort" to accept the invitation.

"There's a tremendous opportunity right in front of us to help create jobs and support energy security for the people of both nations," he said. "It would be a tragedy if that opportunity were missed because of Washington bureaucracy and politics."

Boehner, who is a supporter of the $5.4-billion pipeline that would carry crude oil from Alberta to the U.S. Gulf Coast, said approval for the project remains "stalled indefinitely" by President Barack Obama and the Democrat-controlled Senate.